Microsoft picks up another ad company; Buys Rapt — Microsoft on Friday said it has acquired Rapt, a company that makes software to manage Web advertising yields. — In a statement, Microsoft said: … Rapt's technology will be wrapped into Microsoft's Atlas Publisher Suite, which was acquired in the aQuantive purchase.

FriendFeed Is This Years Twitter, But Why? — If you haven't been keeping up with the noise, FriendFeed is the hot startup of the minute. The service launched to the public February 25 and announced $5 million in funding at the same time. — The concept of FriendFeed is simple enough.

Duncan Riley Misses the Point of FriendFeed — Yesterday, it could be said that FriendFeed “tipped”, as TechMeme's Gabe Rivera put it. Dozens of visible FriendFeed users reported getting an unprecedented swarm of subscriptions by new friends, and the site gained incredible exposure via comments …

Google Exec: Android Will Outsell iPhone — Google has not released sales predictions for devices based on its mobile operating system Android. But that doesn't stop Rich Miner, group manager for mobile platforms at the search giant, from being confident.

Trend Micro falls victim to Web hack — It's not much fun when one of your security vendors falls to a Web attack. Infoworld reports that TrendMicro was a victim of a recent Web attack that used legit sites to deliver malware. — According to InfoWorld Trend Micro removed the infected pages from its Web site.

Microsoft Pitches Merger Vision To Yahoo at Meeting — Senior executives from Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. met Monday to discuss Microsoft's takeover offer for the Internet company, according to people familiar with the matter. — The meeting, the first since Microsoft …

Is KickApps Next to Board AOL's Gravy Train? — While a lot of focus yesterday was on the gobs of cash that Time Warner (TWX) shareholders now have to fork over to social-networking site Bebo, which was bought by its AOL division for $850 million in spite of low revenues …

EXCLUSIVE - Rosedale to step down as Linden Lab CEO — Linden Lab Chief Executive Philip Rosedale said on Friday the company he founded has begun a search for a new CEO with more operational and management expertise. — Rosedale will become chairman of the Linden Lab board when his successor is found …

Justin.TV Teams With Qik For Live Mobile Streaming — Justin.TV will today start offering live mobile streaming to its users via a tie-up with Qik. — With the new service, Justin.TV users will have a option to stream from a mobile phone directly from their control panel without the need to have a Qik account.